I can’t decide how I feel about The Sealed Letter. I liked it but… I’ve never pictured Emily Faithfull as quite so… clueless. I had a hard time not rolling my eyes because I just can’t see Faithfull in the role Donoghue creates for her. Sigh.
The Mapping of Love and Death was another great Maisie Dobbs book. Sad, so sad. But, interesting to see where Maisie goes now that the world is her oyster, so to speak. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole James Compton thing. It’s probably going to be fine and certainly better than Dr Dean for goodness sakes.
I really enjoyed the whole cartographer/diaries/letters thing. Well done. Very well done.
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I sound like a broken record here, don’t I? Among the Mad was excellent. Another great Maisie Dobbs book. I keep waiting for a bad one. Or a not excellent one. A mediocre one. You know there are always a couple that just aren’t amazing when you’re reading a series.
I think I’m going to call 2013 the year of Maisie Dobbs because I’ve enjoyed these so darn much.
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Another great Maisie Dobbs, on audio. I love these. An Incomplete Revenge was awesome — I loved the setting, hop picking in Kent (fascinating) and the Roma. I also loved B.T. Drummond. I love the way the book ended. I just plain loved everything about it.
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TW was right, I really liked My Notorious Life. A lot.
Really good historical fiction. Fictionalized story, in part, about Madame Restell.
Late 1800s. Orphan becomes midwife who also performs abortions and provides contraception. Comstock, obviously, is out to get her. Victorian morality my ass. Hmph.
I couldn’t really decide whether I liked The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls. In the end, I decided I did because the writing was pretty. I’m not sure I liked the STORY very much at all though.
Well parts of it I did, parts of it I didn’t like at all. The biggest problem was that I didn’t really like any of the major characters. It’s hard to love a book when you don’t love SOMEONE in it, ya know? I think I loved the places more than the people… which makes sense, really, when you read the book. A lot of the characters loved places more than people, too.
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Gah. What a frustrating book for a frustrating situation. All of it — frustrating. What a mess. The whole thing, 35 years of bullshit. Roman Polanski can #suckit and so can the LA courts. Sheesh.
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I ran to the library one morning, by myself, to pick up some holds and pluck some books off of the shelf for TW because she was OUT of BOOKS. The Goddess Chronicle was one of those books. I really thought she’d probably already read it. But she hadn’t — thank goodness.
It was a good pick because not only is it a great feminist creation story, we discovered it’s part of a series so now we have another handful of books to look forward to reading.
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I’ve never seen Woman, by Richard Matheson, before. Didn’t know it existed. So, I was kind of excited by it when TW put it in the library bag. I liked I Am Legend and Hell House. (TW is a Somewhere in Time fan.)
But… I didn’t particularly like Woman.
I didn’t hate it but I definitely did not love it. It’s a mean book, I think that’s what bugged me. A cautionary tale for men that’s completely irrational because it’s about women. I don’t know. It bugged me.
I wasn’t going to read Lean In — too much hype, too much angst, too much infighting.
But, Sheryl Sandberg is keynoting BlogHer ’13 so I figured the least I could do would be to read her book.
I’m glad I did.
No Sandberg doesn’t represent all women, or even most women I know. It’s impossible for ANY woman to represent ALL women, that doesn’t mean her message isn’t valid or appropriate or important or… right.
Yes, the point she’s addressing is that women have to step up errr lean in and make things better for themselves and for other women. That’s totally true. No, she’s not addressing the bigger systemic issues, the patriarchal issues, but she mentions that right up front (and several times) — she never suggested that the ONLY solution is for women to change. She said (several times) that these are things we can do, right now.
Things. We. Can. Do.
And I like that.
Because lord knows the system isn’t jumping up and down to change. Rich, white, men in power aren’t jumping up and down to change. Institutional discrimination. Cultural expectations. Psychological issues. Yea, there are a lot of things that have to change before the working world (and the world at large) is a better place for women (and as a result, a better place for everyone.)
But how do you change those things?
Slowly. Very slowly.
And, by doing the things YOU can do right now.
I get that.
Lean In isn’t a perfect book. I groaned a lot. I rolled my eyes at Sandberg’s stories because they are so … privileged… it was hard to look beyond the surface and really hear what she was trying to say.
Which is a problem I think most of us have.
When we try to talk to each other about race or religion or gay rights or women’s rights or any other social issue, we have a hard time relating to what others are saying and sharing because those aren’t our experiences. We have a hard time letting go of the details and looking at the big picture.
Sheryl Sandberg is a powerful, wealthy white woman none of which means she shouldn’t be sharing advice with those who aren’t powerful, wealthy white women.
Have you noticed powerful, wealthy men who give advice and talk about all of the things we can do to change, get ahead, succeed, don’t get slammed because they are powerful and wealthy and can’t relate…?